GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 235

Hamas Propaganda Abounds

The Plot Thickens

I have been very careful to not take any Hamas information at face value and usually like to wait until more intelligence is shared as the days go on. And such advice is turning out to be good as we read in a report from The Times Of Israel:

The Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday that a hidden store of weapons may have been the actual cause of a deadly blaze in southern Gaza’s Rafah, and that an airstrike that targeted an adjacent area had used small munitions that would not ignite such a fire on their own.

The military suspects that the munitions or some other combustible substance it was unaware of caused a secondary explosion and a fire to spread in a complex housing displaced Gazans in Rafah, killing dozens of Palestinian civilians, following an airstrike targeting two top Hamas terrorists in the area.

As reported yesterday, international outrage was seen immediately:

The attack and deaths prompted a wave of international condemnation, with Palestinians and many Arab countries calling it a “massacre.” The United Nations Security Council was set to convene an emergency meeting later on Tuesday regarding the incident, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said was a “tragic mishap.”

Why the PM said that without more information could be more of PR move to assuage the howling masses. Here is more from the Israel Defense Force on what may have happened:

In an update on its investigation of the incident, the IDF said it had been tracking Hamas commanders Yassin Rabia and Khaled Najjar ahead of the strike on a compound they were in on Sunday night, in the Tel Sultan neighborhood in western Rafah. According to the IDF’s intelligence, the area had been used for Hamas activity, with a rocket launcher located just a few dozen meters away from where the two commanders were killed.

According to the IDF, the strike was not intended to harm any civilians and it had carried out steps ahead of the attack to ensure that no women or children were in the Hamas compound.

Israeli fighter jets also used two small munitions in the strike, each with a 17-kilogram warhead (37-pound), in an attempt to prevent any civilian casualties, given the close proximity to the camp for displaced Palestinians, the military said.

A fire mysteriously occurred:

Still, following the strike, a fire spread in the adjacent complex where Palestinian civilians were sheltering. According to Hamas health authorities in Gaza, 45 people were killed and dozens more were wounded.

The IDF added this on that fire:

The two small missiles on their own would not have been enough to spark the fire, according to the IDF’s initial probe.

The military was further investigating what exactly had sparked the fire. The IDF’s initial probe suspects ammunition, weapons or some other material was stored in the area of the strike, causing a secondary blast and the fire that spread and killed the Palestinian civilians.

Or Hamas started it themselves. Hamas is not below killing their own to make Israel look bad.

More Evidence Emerges

Like I said it’s always better to let a story like this play out for a few days before making an opinion on it. And once again, the more we discover, the more we see that Hamas is up to their usual tricks. We go back to the Times report to get more information:

Further evidence came from phone conversations between Gazans in which they were heard asserting that there were weapons in the area.

“Signals intelligence intercepted some phone calls that reinforce this concern, raising the possibility that weapons stored in a nearby compound caught fire,” he said, before airing one such call in which Gazans discussed the blast and “ammunition that started exploding.”

“Yes, this is an ammunition warehouse. I tell you it exploded. The Jewish bombing wasn’t strong, it was a small missile, because it didn’t create a large hole. And afterward a lot of secondary explosions,” one of the Palestinians is heard saying in the call.

Hagari added to this information:

“We are working to verify the cause of the fire. It is still too early to be determined. Even when we do find the cause of the fire that erupted, it won’t make the situation any less tragic,” Hagari said, and vowed that the investigation will be “swift, comprehensive, and transparent.”

Hagari pointed out that Hamas has been operating in the area since the start of the war on October 7 and presented an image showing the terror group’s rocket launchers 43 meters from the targeted site.

“Hamas fired rockets from these launchers at Israel during the massacre on October 7,” Hagari said.

Hamas, per their usual pattern of misinformation said this:

On Tuesday, Hamas claimed that at least another 21 people were killed in a separate strike on the al-Mawasi safe zone.

A civil defense official in the Hamas-run Strip, Mohammad al-Mughayyir, said they were killed in an “occupation strike targeting the tents of displaced people west of Rafah.” Hamas said an Israeli strike had caused “dozens of martyrs and wounded” in the area.

Israel was quick to issue a clarification:

The IDF issued a denial, saying in a statement, “Contrary to the reports from the last few hours, the IDF did not strike in the Humanitarian Area in al-Mawasi.”

It is predictable how Hamas changes the narrative to suit their needs and as we learn more, that is all the more true.

More Propaganda

In an article from The Jerusalem Post we see that social media is causing a stir among those living in the Gaza Strip:

Palestinian accounts on social media have been buzzing with news of the Israeli tank incursion into central Rafah, with many users reporting seeing Israeli forces in the city. However, much of the discourse has been focused on the introduction of a new kind of vehicle allegedly spotted by eyewitnesses, named by eyewitnesses “robotic” or “electronic” tanks.

Robotic tanks? Some think so:

Users were confused as to the functions of this mysterious vehicle. Some said that these are robots checking for the presence of land mines, which would soon be followed by forces; others said they are tank-like robots advancing in the area to explore it and scare citizens away from the streets.

“We just arrived at Zoroub Square and inquired about the situation. It turned out that there were army robots, not manned tanks, arriving after Rabaa from the direction of the axis,” wrote one eyewitness.

At the same time, another reported, “Robotic tanks are centering near Za’rab in Rafah.” One user claimed, “These tanks are used to blow up buildings. They sweep the area in order to advance, as they did in Jabalya.”

And some think they are rigged to explode:

Some were relieved by the rumors of unmanned vehicles, but many others were, in fact, even more alarmed, spreading rumors and allegations of more malicious objectives of these machines. One contributor to the feelings of fear was Qatari news outlet Al-Jazeera, which claimed that the IDF is using “booby-trapped robots” during its incursion into Gazan cities, publishing an “exclusive video” of what appears to be an unmanned vehicle and then zooming in to show it exploded after a short cut of the video.

And then more rumors were heard:

One report even claimed that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad managed to neutralize a “booby-trapped tank.” Another user replied to someone who showed signs of relief that “a robot is not an Atari game, it also shoots and explodes!” while another one added that “these are booby-trapped robots that look like tanks.”

And even more guesses are being made:

Likewise, Palestinian influencer Hamza Al-Masri posted pictures of Israeli tanks, warning his 660,000 followers that “these robot tanks entered Jabalya camp before and exploded. These are booby-trapped tanks. Please be careful and stay away from them. There are no armed clashes; the sound of gunfire is being issued by the tanks themselves at the Zoroub roundabout, west of Rafah.”

And then the article ends with this:

Regardless of the nature of these unmanned vehicles, some users also claimed that the usage of such robotic tanks only proves ‘the fear and panic in the hearts of the Zionists’ who are looking for methods to reduce loss of life.

Over and over again we see how programmed the people who hate Israel are and it shows in this report. Netanyahu and other have said that two of their goals are to demilitarize and deradicalize Gaza. The harder part is evident in these comments as ridding the populace of weapons is going to much easier.